There’s Hot, and Then There’s Beautiful

Well, isn’t this faaaancy: Yiddishe cutie Mila Kunis has been deemed the Sexiest Woman Alive by the heavy-breathing chronic salivators at Esquire Magazine.

This is, as Sisterhood blogger Emily Shire points out, GOOD FOR THE JEWS.

“Centuries of telling us we’re weak, unattractive, and the like have made us burst with pride when our counterexamples hit the national stage.”

True dat. To all the boys who ever made fun of bucked teeth and frizzy hair and big schnozzes, Jewish girls’ lookin’ pretty hot right now, am I right? Can I get a Mmm-hmmm and Hells yeah!?

Not that Miz Mila and her nekkid torso are going to be paraded through Shalom School as an example, even if the poor little tateleh grew up in the mean anti-Semitic streets of Ukraine. But she’s a totally sexy and talented little shaineh maideleh, and we’ll take her.

But I’ll tell you what: I wish we could claim Balpreet Kaur.

A couple of weeks ago, someone named “european douchebag” posted a photo on Reddit of Kaur, a student at Ohio State, as snarky fodder presumably because of her turban and beard. With a grace usually only observed in swans and the movement of the planets, the Sikh woman and future neurosurgeon wrote a response that gently but definitively schooled the shmuck:

“Yes, I’m a baptized Sikh woman with facial hair. Yes, I realize that my gender is often confused and I look different than most women. However, baptized Sikhs believe in the sacredness of this body – it is a gift that has been given to us by the Divine Being [which is genderless, actually] and, must keep it intact as a submission to the divine will. Just as a child doesn’t reject the gift of his/her parents, Sikhs do not reject the body that has been given to us. By crying ‘mine, mine’ and changing this body-tool, we are essentially living in ego and creating a seperateness between ourselves and the divinity within us.

By transcending societal views of beauty, I believe that I can focus more on my actions. My attitude and thoughts and actions have more value in them than my body because I recognize that this body is just going to become ash in the end, so why fuss about it? When I die, no one is going to remember what I looked like, heck, my kids will forget my voice, and slowly, all physical memory will fade away. However, my impact and legacy will remain: and, by not focusing on the physical beauty, I have time to cultivate those inner virtues and hopefully, focus my life on creating change and progress for this world in any way I can.”

So clear. So kind. Such dignity. With love. A humbling lesson for all of us. Especially European douchebag, who was touched enough by Balpreet’s simple loveliness to post a fairly articulate and sincere apology.

It’s things like this that make my heart sing. Boys might still put naked girls on the covers of magazines, but the world might just be evolving.

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